This March 6, 1987 staff file photo shows the Bubbles the pilot whale statue at the entrance to Marineland being removed.

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Robert Craig and his daughter, Katie, stumbled upon the statue of Bubbles in June 2014 at a city maintenance yard.

This undated photo provided by SeaWorld San Diego shows Bubbles, a short-finned pilot whale that lived at SeaWorld San Diego for nearly 30 years. The park reported that Bubbles died Thursday, June 9, 2016. She was believed to be in her mid-50s.

Bubbles, a popular pilot whale who performed for decades at the Marineland aquatic park, might be making a return — of sorts — to the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The whale known for her performances at Marineland of the Pacific was moved abruptly to SeaWorld in 1987 and died in June after nearly 50-year career. Since then, Rancho Palos Verdes resident Robert Craig has renewed his efforts to have a 35-foot statue of Bubbles restored and installed in a city park.

Bubbles was a staple at the Rancho Palos Verdes park before she was moved suddenly to SeaWorld ahead of Marineland’s sudden closure in 1987. The statue of Bubbles stood outside the park’s entrance, flanked by two smaller statues of black-and-white dolphins.

Since the park’s closure, the statues have been housed in a Rancho Palos Verdes maintenance yard, where Craig stumbled across them while on a walk with his daughter and their dog.

Craig said he took up the task of getting the statue restored because Bubbles was a local icon.

“It’s a local icon that put Palos Verdes on the map back in the early ’60s,” he said.

A petition on change.org started shortly after Bubbles died has garnered more than 1,200 signatures. Many supporters responding on the page’s comment section express their nostalgia for Marineland in general and Bubbles specifically.

“Marineland was a part of our lives, those of us who grew up on the Peninsula in the 1970s and early 1980s. Please don’t let the Bubbles Statue be left to degrade and rot away,” John Clifford wrote on the petition page.

Others, like Ilene Dubay, lamented the fact that the iconic statue had been kept in storage for decades.

“Bubbles is a huge part of my childhood memories and (the statue) should be seen by past, present & future children. It’s a true shame that it is in storage,” DuBey wrote.

A proposal explored by city staff would restore the 26-foot-long fiberglass statue at an estimated $20,000 and place it somewhere in Point Vicente Park. That proposal will be considered by the City Council at its meeting Tuesday.

Previous attempts to bring the Bubbles statue back to her former glory on the Peninsula were unsuccessful. A move to add the statue to the park was shot down in 2013 amid concerns by neighbors that it was too tall for the area.

But Craig expects a different outcome this time around, given the widespread support he’s received from people on and off the Peninsula who have fond memories of the pilot whale, he said.

Cynthia Washicko started covering the Palos Verdes Peninsula for the Daily Breeze in 2016. Before joining the Breeze she covered business and local news for papers on the Oregon and Washington coasts. She’s an Orange County native and Cal State Fullerton alum who enjoys traveling and has a particular knack for killing house plants. Restaurant recommendations and story tips are perpetually welcome.

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